NASCAR continues to express confidence that it has long-term plans for the Auto Club Speedway property in Fontana, California.
Formerly a two-mile superspeedway, the old track has mostly been dug up and sold to redevelopers, but NASCAR still owns around 90 acres that could be used to develop a short track using the frontstretch of the previous facility.
The original render, shown above, is now one of several that NASCAR has commissioned as it tries to determine what works within its remaining infrastructure and a layout that works with its current generation Cup car that has struggled to perform on short tracks.
NASCAR sold 433 acres for $544 million last year.
The sanctioning body has said all along that it values the Southern California market and that it intends to race there well into the future. NASCAR has raced at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the past three years with its non-points Busch Clash but that agreement ended in 2024.
Inquiries were made about replacing IndyCar with NASCAR at the Long Beach Grand Prix but nothing came of that as the premier American open wheel series inked an extension with event organizers earlier this year.
NASCAR considered racing inside or around Dodgers Stadium as well.
Ultimately, the 2025 NASCAR schedules were released on Thursday and featured no presence whatsoever within the second largest media market in the country but NASCAR EVP Ben Kennedy, great grandson of league founder Bill France Sr., says they remain invested in the region.
“Our goal is really to be in southern California long-term,” Kennedy said. “We’ve continued to work on our plans for Fontana. We have a number of different configurations and variations the team has been working on for what that track might look like, what are kind of the other activities that could happen on that parcel of land that we have there, but also exploring all of our opportunities the southern California market.
“It’s a massive market for us, number two in terms of the quantity of NASCAR fans, a huge media market for us, in FOX’s backyard. Strategically as a sport it makes a lot of sense for us to be in southern California. What that looks like in the future remains to be seen. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to have it on the 2025 schedule, but bullish about getting it back on the schedule here in the future.”
NASCAR has also explored the potential of a street race in San Diego for 2025 once the three-year deal with the City of Chicago concludes after the 2025 race.
NASCAR president Steve Phelps also indicated that the economy will also dictate to a degree a construction timeline.
“This isn’t the best time to be building based on inflation, the cost of capital, etc. But our intention is to continue to be in the Southern California market,” Phelps said.